r 


vimwi  a^  umi- 


owdoin  College 
Bulletin 


Number  84 


October,  1918 


Inauguration 

of 

President  Sills 


Brunswick,  Maine 


Entered  as  second-class  matter,  June  28,  1907,  at  Brunswick,  Maine 
under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894 


Published  monthly  by  the  College 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/addressesatinObowd 


PRESIDENT   SILLS 


ADDRESSES 

at  the 

INAUGURATION 

of 

Kenneth  Charles  Morton  Sills 

as 

President  of  Bowdoin  College 
June  20,  1918 


Brunswick,  Maine 
1918 


Order  of  Exercises 

MUSIC 

The   Star   Spangled   Banner 

MUSIC 

Prayer  of  Invocation, 

By  The  Reverend  Samuel  Valentine  Cole,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Vice-President  of  the   Board  of  Trustees 

Address  for  the  Faculty, 

By  Professor  Charles  Theodore  Burnett,  Ph.D. 

Address  and  Investiture,  with  Presentation  of  the  Keys  of  the 
College, 

By  The  Honorable  Clarence  Hale,  LL.D., 

President  of  the  Board  of  0\erseers 

Inaugural  Address, 

By  President   Sills 

MUSIC 

DoMiNE  Salvum  Fac  Pr^sidem  Nostrum, 

Edzvard  Haines  IVass 
*   Domine  salvum  fac  Praesidem  nostrum 
Et  exaudi  nos  in  die  qua  invocaverimus  te. 
Gloria  Patri  et  Filio  et  Spiritiii  Sancto 

Siciit  erat  in  principio 
Et  nunc  et  semper  in  saecida  saeciilorum.     Amen. 

MUSIC 

Benediction, 

By  The  Reverend  Charles  Morton  Sills,  D.D. 


Address  for  the  Faculty 
By  Professor  Burnett 

As  a  member  of  the  college  Faculty,  I  take  unusual  pleasure 
in  congratulating  us  upon — ourselves,  on  possessing  miscellane- 
ous abilities  so  varied  and  ample  that  twice  in  nine  years 
Governing  Boards  have  helped  themselves  to  us  when  seeking 
a  college  president.  Most — and  seriously — I  congratulate  our- 
selves upon  the  leader  that  has  been  given  us.  To  enumerate 
in  detail  the  specific  qualities  which  meet  in  him  and  brought 
upon  him,  first  the  scrutinizing,  then  the  approving  eyes  of  our 
Boards,  might  seem  fulsome  on  this  occasion.  The  press  has 
already  done  this.  I  turn  rather,  for  matter  of  congratulation, 
to  more  intimate  and  homely  relations: — the  happy  chance  that 
has  relieved  us  of  the  trying  period  of  adjustment  between 
faculty  and  stranger  president;  the  fact  that  we  have  already 
formed  the  habit  of  working  with  our  new  leader;  and  his 
proved  ability  to  work  with  young  and  old. 

I  think  it  just  to  congratulate  you,  in  turn,  Mr.  President, 
not  upon  your  distinction,  an  idle  subject  of  congratulation 
these  great  days,  but  on  your  opportunity  to  use  the  prestige 
of  your  office  to  great  ends;  and  on  having  as  your  immediate 
helpers  a  Faculty  that  knows  the  meaning  and  practice  of 
loyal  cooperation.  You  know  that  they  know  it;  under  your 
notable  predecessor,  President  Hyde,  their  practice  was  your 
practice. 

And,  men  and  women  of  Brunswick,  I  congratulate  you  too. 
The  confidence  you  gave  long  since  to  the  new  President, 
whereby  you  made  him  one  of  your  leading  citizens,  is  this 
day  being  amply  confirmed. 

And  now,   in  the  presence  of  an  illustrious  company,  not 


6  Bowdoin  College 

merely  this  latter  day  group,  which  gives  the  life  and  the 
semblance  of  reality  to  this  day's  doings,  nor  of  that  wider 
group  only,  reaching  out  into  the  homes  and  marts,  the  courts 
and  camps  of  America,  and  across  the  seas,  where  Bowdoin 
men  at  this  moment  are  among  those  daring  greatly  for  our 
country;  but  in  the  presence  of  that  larger  group  of  which  we 
are  a  brief  portion,  the  voices  of  whose  leaders,  in  their  day, 
echoed  through  the  very  arches  of  this  old  church — four  gen^er- 
ations  of  your  own  immediate  predecessors  in  office,  Mr. 
President; — in  this  ample  presence  you  are  taking  your  place 
upon  the  Seat  Perilous.  You  are  taking  this  place  because  the 
College  must  have  a  leader  and  because  you  are  the  man.  But, 
members  and  friends  of  Bowdoin  College,  you  cannot  test  and 
use  to  the  uttermost  the  capacities  of  this  new  leader  until  you 
have  given  him  your  confidence  in  full  measure  and  your 
cooperation  without  measure.  The  task  of  the  leader,  whether 
in  education  or  affairs  is  today  as  always  to  reveal  men  to 
themselves;  not  to  hold  a  mirror  up  to  nature;  we  have  per- 
haps had  too  much  of  that  bad  practice  in  both  education  and 
politics;  rather  to  disclose  in  clear  form  and  persuasive  colors 
what  in  other  men  has  not  yet  come  to  light  at  all — vague  yet 
vital  ends,  inarticulate  but  eternal  meanings.  The  leader's 
power  to  reveal  is  the  measure  of  his  right  to  lead.  God  grant 
such  insight  and  persuasiveness,  such  confidence  and  co- 
operation, to  the  new  head  of  this  old  College ! 


Address  of   Investiture 
By  Judge  Hale 

My  dear  Mr.  President:  A  little  more  than  a  century  and 
a  quarter  ago,  James  Bowdoin  and  other  good  men  of  Massa- 
chusetts were  accustomed  to  meet  in  Boston  for  frequent  con- 
ferences in  reference  to  forming  a  Maine  college.  These  con- 
ferences afterwards  resulted  in  the  conclusion  that:  "In  order 
that  the  moral  sense  of  the  Eastern  Section  be  improved  by 
culture  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  according  to  the  sentiments 
and  maxims  of  the  fathers,  a  public  seminary  of  learning  be 
opened  in  the  Eastern  District."  Those  in  authority  were 
moved  to  this  conclusion  largely  by  the  letters  and  petitions 
of  good  ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Maine  District.  Legis- 
lation followed.  Bowdoin  College  was  born.  A  few  years 
later,  in  1802,  President  Joseph  McKeen  was  calling  his  eight 
students  by  the  thump  of  his  cane  upon  the  stairs,  down  from 
their  rooms  in  the  second  story  of  Massachusetts  Hall,  to  morn- 
ing and  evening  prayers,  in  the  chapel  on  the  first  floor.  By 
the  goodness  of  God,  in  the  growing  years,  six  other  Bowdoin 
presidents  have  done  their  work  and  gone  to  their  reward. 
Good  men;  great  men.  I  think  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  College  has  met  the  hope  of  its  founders;  it  has  pursued 
its  upward  course  "in  accordance  with  the  sentiments  and 
maxims  of  the  fathers";  it  has  "advanced  education  and  re- 
ligion." It  has  extended  its  beneficent  hand  to  five  generations 
of  men.  Four  thousand  and  forty-one  students  have  pursued 
a  four  years'  course  of  liberal  studies,  and  have  received  the 
Bachelor's  degree;  two  thousand  and  eighty-seven  young  men 
have  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine.    And  now  we 


8  Bowdoin  College 

have  come  to  this  welcome  day  in  its  history  when  we  are  to 
invest  a  new  President  with  the  authority  of  his  great  office. 
I  deem  it  a  high  privilege  and  honor  to  be  permitted,  in  behalf 
of  the  Government  of  the  College,  to  give  voice  to  its  con- 
gratulations. 

When,  in  1836,  Harvard  University  celebrated  its  two 
hundredth  anniversary.  President  Quincy  reminded  its  as- 
sembled friends,  that  it  was  not  with  "a  display  of  dazzling 
and  delusive  words"  that  Harvard  should  make  a  holiday;  but 
rather  with  a  view  to  its  future  service.  And  so,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, the  thing  that  stands  before  us  today  is  service.  How 
can  you  make  the  College  help  men?  This  is  the  same  world 
the  founders  of  the  College  saw  a  century  ago.  The  human 
mind  is  the  same.  The  human  heart  is  the  same.  But  there 
are  more  people  in  the  world.  Things  have  become  more 
complicated.  And  the  more  complicated  they  have  become,  the 
more  need  of  the  College;  the  more  need  that  the  first  pur- 
pose of  its  founders  be  re-stated :  to  teach  Righteousness :  to 
teach  first  the  Righteousness  that  exalteth  a  Nation.  Presi- 
dents McKeen,  Appleton,  Allen,  and  Woods  saw  the  world 
perhaps  as  clearly  as  President  Hyde  saw  it,  when  in  his 
inaugural  address  he  spoke  of  the  "infinite  width  of  the 
celestial  diameter  which  separates  barbarism  from  civilization, 
the  peaceful  security  of  society  from  lawless  violence,  and 
which  shows  how  vital  is  the  relationship  between  the  College 
and  the  Community."  But  the  college  President  of  a  century 
ago  could  hardly  have  imagined  how  terrible  an  illustration 
was  possible  of  that  ''celestial  diameter"  between  peaceful 
security  and  lawless  violence.  Five  years  ago  the  apostles  of 
freedom  the  world  over  were  feeling  assured,  in  the  language 
of  a  great  English  statesman,  that  the  history  of  liberty  was 
"showing  a  gradual,  but  sure,  substitution  of  Freedom  for 
Force  in  the  eovernment  of  men."     Of  a  sudden  we  awoke 


Inaugural  Exercises  9 

from  our  dream,  to  find  ourselves  caught  in  the  grip  of  n 
world  war  thrust  upon  us  by  a  powerful  autocracy  to  attain 
the  mastery  of  the  nations  by  a  great  crime,  involving  the 
slaughter  of  millions  of  men.  It  soon  became  clear  that 
Democracy  is  on  trial;  that  there  is  an  irrepressible  conflict 
between  Force  and  Free  Government.  In  this  conflict  millions 
of  young  men  from  college  and  factory  and  farm  in  all  the 
free  nations  of  the  world,  are  pouring  out  their  blood.  Upon 
our  own  nation  now  rests  the  burden.  Upon  her  depends  the 
decision.  Her  life  is  at  stake.  In  the  midst  of  war,  Mr. 
President,  let  the  first  teaching  of  the  College  be  that  there 
can  be  but  one  end  of  such  a  conflict:  that,  as  sure  as  God 
reigns,  Freedom  shall  triumph  over  Force,  and  will  accept 
no  peace  but  by  a  final  and  conclusive  victory.  Let  this  teaching 
be  a  part  of  college  education  and  religion.  At  a  time  like 
this,  I  should  be  ashamed  if  I  did  not  put  this  teaching  as  the 
first  duty  of  the  College  in  helping  men;  for  this  pertains  to 
the  teaching  of  Righteousness  which  the  founders  of  the  Col- 
lege inculcated.  They  meant  the  College  to  be  sacred  to  sound 
learning.  But  they  meant  above  all — and  we  mean  above  all — 
that  it  be  "sacred  to  Liberty  and  the  Rights  of  Mankind." 
When  William  Pitt,  the  Great  Commoner,  was  ruling  England 
in  the  Seven  Years  War  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  his  presence  was  a  personal  inspiration  and  an  irre- 
sistible driving  power  in  carrying  the  war  to  victory.  It  was 
said  of  him  that  no  person  went  into  his  presence  without  be- 
coming at  once  a  braver  man.  Mr.  President,  let  no  young 
man  breathe  the  air  of  Bowdoin  College  during  this  world  con- 
flict without  at  once  becoming  a  better  citizen  and  a  braver 
man. 

Beyond  the  duty  of  the  College  to  teach  Righteousness,  it 
is,  of  course,  her  duty  to  cherish  and  to  teach  sound  learning. 
The  early  tendency  of  universities  and  colleges  was  to  store 


10  Bowdoin  College 

up  learning.  Now  we  know  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  college 
to  diffuse  learning;  to  make  it  efficient;  not  simply  to  fill  the 
mind,  but  to  educate  it,  to  lead  it  out  and  train  it  to  be  an 
effective  instrument  in  helping  the  world.  Leading  the  mind 
out  means  sometimes  to  lead  it  out  into  new  fields;  it  means 
always  to  keep  it  open  to  find  new  fields.  This  is  progress. 
But  progress  is  not  forgetfulness.  He  that  looks  to  the  future 
must  be  taught  by  the  past.  Nobody  can  get  along  without 
the  advice  of  wise  men  who  have  gone  before.  We  have  been 
reminded  that  no  lawyer  ventures  to  try  his  case  until  he  has 
sought  sedulously  what  the  dead  judges  have  said.  No  man 
undertakes  to  instruct  the  people  in  popular  government  with- 
out reference  to  the  old  apostles,  to  Lincoln  and  Jefferson  and 
Washington.  Bowdoin  College  is  reaching  out  to  the  future, 
but  it  cannot,  if  it  would,  cut  itself  off  from  its  splendid  past. 
It  must  study,  too,  all  the  past  to  get  the  great  lessons  of  his- 
tory. For  you  cannot  imagine  a  college  without  an  historical 
sense.  I  would  not  have  it  forego  the  study  of  the  earlier 
centuries  through  the  Classics.  No  man  could  put  the  value 
of  such  study  with  greater  clearness  than  your  predecessor 
when  he  said  in  his  inaugural :  "These  ancient  tongues  con- 
tain the  words,  and  sing  the  deeds  of  the  bright,  gladsome, 
hopeful.  Godlike  childhood  of  the  race.  ...  We  bear  in 
mind  the  fact  that  the  community  whose  scholars  do 
not  read  the  classic  authors,  will  itself  be  found  without  poet 
or  historian  to  record  its  own  life  in  words  which  other  men 
and  other  ages  shall  care  to  read."  I  believe,  too,  that  the 
College  ought  not  to  forget  that  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament  are  a  part  of  the  Classics;  that  they  still  con- 
tain truths  that  are  not  worn  out,  and  rules  of  conduct  that 
are  not  barred  by  the  Statutes  of  Limitation. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  suggest  the  fields  of  learning  the  College 
is  to  cultivate,  or  the  avenues  of  thought  it  is  to  explore.     I 


Inaugural  Exercises  ii 

think  it  was  Gladstone  who  said  that  during  certain  centuries 
the  English  universities  did  not  accomplish  the  work  they  ought 
to  have  done  because  they  stored  up  learning,  but  did  not  seek 
direct  avenues  to  make  learning  applicable  to  the  wants  of 
society;  that  they  constantly  had  before  them  an  ideal  of  some- 
thing better,  but  did  not  set  themselves  to  the  practical  service 
of  mankind  in  the  old  paths.  Sometimes  too  high  an  ideal 
dispirits  rather  than  inspires.  You  remember  the  old  proverb 
that  "the  best  is  often  the  enemy  of  the  good."  Let  the  Col- 
lege, then,  do  its  every  day  duties  in  the  service  of  mankind 
with  faithfulness,  and  with  watchfulness  for  new  fields  of  duty. 
Watchfulness  implies  the  spirit  of  the  teachable.  And  if  the 
College  gives  any  lasting  thing  to  a  man,  it  is  the  teachable 
spirit,  the  spirit  of  constantly  learning  something  and  im- 
parting what  he  knows.  When  we  say  that  scholarship  trains 
the  mind,  we  mean  that  it  puts  the  mind  in  a  teachable  frame 
and  not  in  a  taught  frame.  The  best  thing  the  College  gives  a 
man  is  the  ability  to  learn  constantly  from  the  great  storehouses 
of  the  past,  and  from  the  lives  and  the  learning  that  have  gone 
before,  and  to  impart  to  the  world  what  he  knows.  The  gift 
of  the  College,  then,  is  not  only  knowledge,  but  the  sense  of 
proportion,  which  is  the  best  definition  of  wisdom,  I  think,  that 
has  ever  been  given. 

It  may  be  that  during  this  great  world  conflict,  colleges  can 
do  little  more  than  wait.  It  is  a  proverb,  you  know,  that  in 
the  midst  of  war,  laws  are  silent.  In  the  midst  of  war,  lear- 
ing  is  silent;  but  it  is  the  silence  of  watchfulness,  not  of  in- 
attention. 

Although  in  the  pressure  of  affairs  of  our  later  life,  the 
tendency  is  to  make  the  president  of  a  college  merely  its  execu- 
tive and  the  master  of  its  business,  do  not  forget  that  in  all 
the  avenues  of  study  and  of  usefulness  in  which  the  college 
advances,  the  president  is  still  the  leader  and  the  teacher. 


12  Bowdoin  College 

When  the  first  president  was  inaugurated,  the  Governing 
Boards,  with  solemn  form,  turned  over  to  President  McKeen 
the  keys  of  Massachusetts  Hall,  then  the  only  keys  of  the  Col- 
lege. This  custom  has  prevailed  for  a  century.  For  the  eighth 
time  it  is  our  duty  and  pleasure  to  observe  it.  As  a  token  of 
the  confidence  which  we  repose  in  you,  Mr.  President;  as  a 
symbol  of  the  authority  with  which  we  gladly  invest  you,  ! 
commit  to  your  hands  the  keys  of  Bowdoin  College. 


Inaugural  Address 
By  President  Sills 

In  accepting  from  your  hands,  Sir,  the  keys  of  Bowdoin 
College,  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  the  honor,  the  duties,  and 
the  responsibilities  which  the  Governing  Boards  have  imposed 
upon  me.  Such  responsibilities  can  never  .be  lightly  assumed : 
but  to  succeed  in  the  presidency  a  man  like  William  DeWitt 
Hyde,  in  such  critical  and  uncertain  days  as  these,  is  made 
possible  only  by  the  generous  assurance  of  support  and 
cooperation  from  the  Governing  Boards,  from  the  Faculty,  and 
from  the  students,  alumni,  and  friends  of  Bowdoin.  I  should 
like  here  also  to  thank  the  representatives  of  other  colleges  in 
New  England  and  our  guests  whose  presence  with  us  today 
shows  that  we  are  working  out  our  academic  problems  to- 
gether : 

"We  share  our  mutual  woes, 

Our  mutual  burdens  bear; 

And  often   for  each  other  flows 

The  sympathizing  tear". 

Members  of  the  Governing  Boards,  Alumni,  Undergraduates, 
Friends  of  the  College,  and  you,  my  colleagues  on  the 
Faculty : 

An  inauguration  is  inevitably  a  time  for  looking  ahead,  for 
announcing  plans  and  formulating  policies  for  the  future.  This 
year  such  a  programme  is  uncommonly  difficult..  We  do  not 
yet  realize  what  sacrifices  we  shall,  as  a  nation,  be  called  upon 
to  make,  before  the  war  is  won  and  a  righteous  peace  estab- 
lished. Perhaps  in  the  next  year  our  halls  of  learning  will  be 
as  denuded  of  students  as   are  the  proudly  war-scarred  uni- 


M  Bowdoin  College 

versities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  and  Paris  and  Rome  today. 
These  few  seniors  happily  present  here  to  represent  a  class  six 
times  as  large,  the  long  honor- roll  of  undergraduates  already 
in  service,  a  fourth  of  the  Faculty  absent  in  war  work,  the 
financial  burdens  and  worries  that  the  times  exact — these  things 
attest  in  part  what  the  war  means  to  us.  Half  of  the  heart  of 
the  College  is  now  in  France;  and  the  remaining  half  here  beats 
in  sympathy, — its  thoughts  largely  over  there.  Nor  is  it  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  these  conditions  and  these  sacrifices, 
which  are  probably  only  a  small  beginning,  are  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  leadership  of  our  American  colleges  in  the 
national  life  during  the  past  four  years. 

At  a  college  gathering  such  as  this  we  are  justified  in  empha- 
sizing the  contribution  made  by  our  colleges  in  the  great  con- 
flict for  freedom  and  humanity.  It  is  a  twofold  gift — men  and 
ideas,  although  perhaps  it  is  idle  to  make  that  separation.  The 
great  service  early  rendered  by  college  boys  to  the  cause  for 
which  we  now  fight  has  not,  I  think,  been  sufficiently  recognized. 
Long  before  our  troops  were  in  France,  earlier  even  than  the 
messengers  of  mercy  from  the  Red  Cross,  the  drivers  in  the 
American  Field  Ambulance  service  showed  France  that  chivalry 
was  not  dead  in  America,  and  carried  to  the  gallant  and  hard 
pressed  French  people  the  sympathy  of  the  United  States  that 
was  never  neutral.  By  far  the  large  majority  of  those  ambu- 
lance drivers  were  college  men;  happy,  care-free  lads  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  not  without  the  faults  of  youth,  but  high 
spirited,-  generous  representatives  of  the  American  people.  They 
anticipated  Pershing's  admirable  phrase,  "We  are  here, 
Lafayette."  And  while  among  them  and  in  the  Foreign  Legion 
there  were  many  athletes  and  many  with  technical  training, 
there  were  also  surprisingly  many  who  were  impelled  to  go  by 
that  idealism  that  is  bred  of  literature  and  science  and  art. 
Some  of  them,  like  that  noble  Dartmouth  lad  who  gave  his  life 


Inaugural  Exercises  i5 

Christmas  night,  lie  there  the  advance  guard  of  that  goodly 
company 

"Who  give  their  merry  youth  away 
For  country  and  for  God." 

In  the  world  of  thought,  from  August  1914  until  April  1917, 
our  American  colleges  and  universities  were  helping  to  mould 
American  opinion.  All  over  the  country  college  professors 
were  with  remarkable  unanimity  outspoken  in  their  sympathy 
for  the  allies.  We  sometimes  forget  that  splendid  challenge 
that  was  sent  to  Germany  very  early  in  the  war,  to  lay  her  case 
before  a  jury  of  American  professors. who  had  received  their 
university  training  in  Germany  and  who  had  had  in  the  happy 
past  many  ties  binding  them  to  that  land.  That  challenge  was 
never  accepted  for  the  verdict  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  Here 
at  Bowdoin  we  may  well  be  proud  of  the  fact  that  the  address 
of  sympathy  to  the  people  of  the  allied  nations,  signed  by  five 
hundred  well  known  Americans,  bears  the  names  of  three 
members  of  our  faculty — two  of  them  the  honored  names  of 
President  Hyde  and  Professor  Johnson.  When  the  history  of 
the  war  comes  finally  to  be  written,  it  will  be  seen,  I  think, 
that  the  colleges  interpreted  in  advance  with  clear  vision  what 
was  later  to  be  the  sober  thought  of  the  nation,  as  the  college 
boys  were  the  first  to  go  overseas.  Today  we  see  the  justifica- 
tion of  it  all :  and  no  man  can  say  that  the  colleges  were  not 
right. 

Since  April  1917  our  colleges,  and  I  am  speaking  particularly 
for  colleges  of  liberal  arts,  such  as  ours,  have  been  making  the 
same  contribution  to  the  nation.  We  have  sometimes  been 
asked  what  service  can  be  rendered  by  our  students,  who  have 
had  little  technical  training,  in  a  war  that  demands  scientific 
skill  of  the  highest  order.  To  such  as  doubt  the  worth  of  a 
liberal  education  it  may  in  this  instance  be  enough  to  say  that 
from  our  present  undergraduate  body  boys  have  gone  not  only 


i6  Bowdoin  College 

into  the  usual  branches  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  but  into  avia- 
tion, into  government  laboratories  of  chemistry,  as  assistants 
in  neurological  work,  as  junior  navigating  officers,  as  v^ireless 
operators,  as  candidates  for  officers  in  heavy  artillery,  as 
students  of  naval  architecture.  This  is  v^hat  a  liberal  training 
does  today :  and  if  one  looks  over  the  roll  of  Bowdoin  alumni 
in  the  service,  he  will  find  the  same  situation.  Two  graduates 
of  the  College  are  in  charge  of  large  orthopedic  hospitals  for 
returned  soldiers,  one  on  the  Atlantic,  one  on  the  Pacific  coast; 
another  is  general  manager  of  the  American  Red  Cross;  an- 
other is  in  charge  of  the  organization  of  hospitals  for  the  Army. 
Such  service, — it  can  be  duplicated  by  any  other  of  our  col- 
leges,— I  dwell  on  to  show  that  when  the  test  came,  the  College 
was  ready.  Her  sons  who  had  received  a  liberal  training,  with- 
out great  difficulty  adapted  themselves  to  new  conditions  and 
took  up  with  intelligence  and  enthusiasm  their  tasks  in  the 
service  on  land  and  sea  and  in  the  air.  And  while  the  younger 
sons  of  the  College  have  thus  been  serving  their  country,  the 
College  that  stays  at  home  and  trains  for  the  future  has  also 
been  making  its  contribution  to  the  national  life  by  sending 
forth  others  liberally  educated,  by  upholding  ideals  of  patriotism 
and  righteousness  not  only  for  its  students,  but  for  the  general 
community.  If  all  those  voices  that  from  university  and  college 
desks  have  spoken  for  the  right  should  be  suddenly  withdrawn, 
unquestionably  the  morale  of  the  nation  would  be  hurt.  For 
the  people  look  to  the  colleges  as  never  before  for  moral 
leadership. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  appropriate  to  emphasize  toda}^  what 
our  colleges  have  been  doing  for  the  nation  since  the  war, 
because  one  hears  occasionally  that  all  education  in  the  future 
must  be  technical  and  efficient,  and  that  the  college  of  liberal 
arts  must  change  the  whole  basis  of  its  training.  I  do  not  for 
one  instant  believe  it.     An  institution  that  has  stood  the  test 


Inaugural  Exercises  17 

during  these  past  few  years  has  about  it  quaHties  that  are 
strong  and  abiding,  and  in  peace  even  more  than  in  war  is 
essential  to  the  national  life,  for  it  has  proved  that  it  can 
prepare  for  most  unexpected  emergencies.  A  nation  that  re- 
ceives annually  into  its  stream  thousands  of  young  men  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one,  who  have  had  their  minds  quickened  and 
their  sympathies  broadened  by  collegiate  training,  is  going  to  be 
able  to  conduct  a  long  war  successfully  if  we  are  wise  enough, 
as  I  doubt  not  we  shall  be,  to  raise  and  not  to  lower  the  draft 
age.  And  furthermore  when  the  dark  clouds  of  war  pass,  we 
shall  be  able  to  carry  on  the  works  and  arts  of  peace  more 
skilfully  and  more  generously. 

These  words  of  merited  praise  for  our  colleges  which  you 
all  approve  and  which  are  now  bestowed  by  the  man  in  the 
street,  by  no  means  imply  that  our  colleges  cannot  be  bettered 
nor  the  training  given  improved.  Indeed  the  measure  of  our 
pride  in  the  college  as  an  institution  is,  like  Dr.  Arnold's  in- 
terest in  Rugby,  our  desire  to  make  it  better.  The  pioneer  stage 
of  the  American  college  is  at  an  end.  We  have  established  in- 
stitutions of  all  kinds,  furnished  them  with  buildings  and  staked 
their  claims.  Doubtless  to  meet  new  needs  new  halls  of  learn- 
ing will  be  opened  from  time  to  time.  At  the  present  moment 
many  of  us  are  watching  with  interest  the  foundation  in  New 
York  City  of  an  Academy  of  Political  Science,  heralded  by 
The  Nation  and  The  New  Republic  as  admirably  adapted  to 
current  social  conditions — an  institution  where  there  is  to  be  no 
President  and  where  the  Faculty  is  to  elect  the  Trustees  on 
the  theory,  no  doubt,  that  then  the  wicked  will  cease  from 
troubling  and  the  weary  will  be  at  rest.  There  may  be  a  place 
for  such  an  academy,  as  there  may  be  room  for  new  technical 
institutes.  But  in  the  main  we  ought  to  avoid  the  setting  up 
of  new  colleges  and  the  duplication  of  work  already  well  done. 
Our  energies  should  now  be  employed  in  developing  and  im- 


i8  Bowdoin  College 

proving  the  colleges  and  universities  we  already  have.  Each 
of  these  has  its  own  place,  its  own  mission,  its  own  individu- 
ality: it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  plan  not  extensively  but 
intensively.  Our  colleges  will  need  as  much  generous  support 
trom  individuals  and  from  the  state  as  has  been  so  lavishly 
poured  out  in  the  past:  for  they  must  keep  pace  with  the 
thought  and  demands  of  an  increasingly  complex  civilization. 

Among  our  American  colleges  which  are  the  product  of 
American  conditions  and  adapted  to  American  needs,  what  is 
the  distinctive  place  of  Bowdoin?  We  have  in  the  past  stood 
stoutly  for  a  liberal  education:  and  we  shall  continue  to  stand 
for  it.  We  have  no  desire  to  become  a  university,  nor  to  tack 
on  a  technical  annex;  we  hope  to  avoid  also  the  temptation 
common  to  many  small  colleges  who  wish  to  become  big.  The 
type  of  boy  to  whom  we  appeal,  the  constituency  from  which  we 
draw  and  which  should  be  enlarged  so  as  to  include  in  our 
student  body  more  boys  from  outside  of  New  England,  the 
standards  of  scholarship  which  we  maintain — all  these  things 
will  probably  make  it  unnecessary  to  place  any  formal  restric- 
tions, at  least  for  many  years,  upon  the  size  of  our  entering 
class.  Most  of  us  would  not  wish  to  see  the  College  have  more 
than  five  hundred  students;  but  numbers  are  not  the  ultimate 
test.  We  are  striving  to  make  our  own  contribution  in  our 
own  way,  ready  so  far  as  details  are  concerned  always  to 
change  with  changing  times,  but  maintaining  firmly  the 
principles  and  traditions  of  the  New  England  college. 

To  train  men  effectively,  the  thing  of  central  importance  is 
the  teaching  force.  Here  at  Bowdoin  we  have  always  given, 
and  I  trust  we  shall  always  give,  complete  independence  and  a 
very  large  share  of  the  management  of  the  College  to  the 
Faculty.  It  has  been  a  matter  of  policy  with  our  Governing 
Boards  for  many  years  to  adopt  all  the  recommendations  of 
the  Faculty  on  educational  matters.    We  hold  that  the  members 


Inaugural  Exercises  19 

of  the  Faculty  are  not  merely  teachers,  they  are  educational 
experts  and  in  their  hands  should  be  placed  the  management 
of  the  educational  policy  of  the  College.  All  this  is  not  de- 
termined so  much  by  legal  statute  as  by  proper  cooperation  be- 
tween president,  boards,  and  staff.  Under  President  Hyde  no 
appointment  or  promotion  was  made  without  the  approval  of 
the  permanent  faculty;  and  that  practise  will  be  continued. 
The  direction  of  the  educational  policy  of  the  College  must  be 
granted  as  axiomatic,  if  the  teaching  given  is  to  be  really 
liberal.  There  is  small  danger  of  fantastic  vagaries  among 
teachers  who  are  assured  of  freedom  and  sobered  by  responsi- 
bility. Many  of  the  unhappy  instances  of  late,  where  the  ques- 
tion of  academic  freedom  has  been  raised,  have  occurred  where 
teachers  had  no  fair  share,  no  responsibility  in  managing  the 
college  or  university  to  which  they  were  attached.  In  speaking 
of  the  Faculty  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  it  is  comparatively 
easy  to  secure  administrators.  We  Americans  take  by  nature 
to  business  and  direction;  it  is  the  hardest  task  of  the  College 
to  secure  good  teachers, — and  a  great  teacher  is  rare  indeed. 
If  the  small  college  offers  to  its  teachers  an  opportunity  to  take 
an  active  part  in  its  management,  the  advantages  of  a  uni- 
versity in  affording  scholars  greater  facilities  in  books  and 
laboratories  and  more  in  the  way  of  professional  stimulus 
will  be  in  no  small  part  offset.  When  people  speak  enthu- 
siastically of  the  power  and  influence  of  the  teacher,  we  should 
ask  them  to  make  good  their  words  by  seeing  that  our  college 
teachers  have  a  chance  to  exercise  that  influence  and  thus  not 
only  to  mould  character  but  to  mould  the  institution  which  they 
serve. 

Good  teaching  is  so  important  in  a  small  college,  because  a 
liberal  training  frees  the  mind,  and  the  way  in  which  a  course 
is  given  is  as  important  as  the  subject  matter.  You,  Sir,  in 
your  address  have  mentioned  the  Classics,  and  I  agree  that 


20  Bowdoin  College 

the  Classics  still  have  a  place  of  importance  in  the  kind  of 
education  which  we  give.  But  very  much  depends  upon  how 
the  Classics  are  taught.  We  need  greatly  in  our  national,  as 
in  our  individual  life,  the  graciousness  and  liberality  that  come 
from  contact  with  other  civilizations  and  other  worlds.  We 
all  need  to  be  reminded  of  pagan  times ;  to  have  awakened  in  us 
"A  Pan  not  dead 
Not  wholly  dead." 
Communion  with  the  noblest  spirits  of  the  Hellenic  and  Roman 
ages  somehow  or  other  does  breed  fortitude  and  independence, 
as  acquaintance  with  Latin  and  Greek  unquestionably  chastens 
the  style.  It  means  something  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  world. 
Many  people  nowadays  in  their  conclusions  on  the  value  of 
Latin  and  Greek  are  like  the  woman  who  was  helping  a  gentle- 
man to  pack  up  his  library.  In  the  midst  of  her  work  she 
remarked,  "Somehow  I  never  cared  much  for  books.  But  then," 
she  continued  after  a  thoughtful  pause,  "I  can't  read  and  that 
may  have  something  to  do  with  it."  Somehow,  says  the  modern 
man,  I  don't  think  much  of  the  Classics.  But  then  I  can't  read 
them  and  that  may  have  something  to  do  with  it.  It  would  be 
a  wicked  waste  of  time  to  insist  that  every  student  shall  con- 
tinue the  Classics  in  college,  or  rather  go  on  with  Latin,  as 
Greek  is  unhappily  almost  extinct.  Yet  the  average  college  boy 
will  do  better  work  in  his  classes,  will  write  better  English, 
will  be  a  little  more  of  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar  if  he  has  had 
at  first  hand  contact  with  the  best  Latin  or  the  best  Greek  that 
has  been  written.    A  first-rate  thing  is  never  dead. 

On  all  sides  we  are  being  called  upon  to  give  more  definite 
instruction.  But,  as  the  proverb  puts  it,  though  we  do  not  know 
the  goal,  we  are  in  locomotion.  It  would  be  better  if  we  had 
a  clearer  notion  of  what  education  is  all  about;  but  as  de- 
mocracy in  the  political  world  was  so  long  deferred  because 
men,  willing  though  they  were,  could  not  find  the  right  solution; 


Inaugural  Exercises  21 

and  as  democracy  in  the  industrial  world  seems  to  be  indefinitely 
postponed  for  much  the  same  reason,  so  in  the  educational  world 
we  have  to  submit  to  constant  experimentation.  I  share  in  the 
general  feeling  that  for  the  college  the  absolutely  free  elective 
system  is  not  without  serious  defects,  because  students  are  not 
mature  enough  to  choose  well.  For  them  freedom  might  be 
defined  as  in  the  delightful  French  play,  "Freedom  is  not  to  do 
what  one  pleases,  but  to  do  what  is  deemed  wise."  At  Bowdoin 
we  have  safeguarded  the  elective  system  positively  by  requiring 
certain  work  and  negatively  by  offering  limited  courses.  We 
ought,  however,  in  my  judgment  to  make  sure  that  every  student 
before  graduation  should  have  had  some  work,  whether  in 
language,  history,  or  art,  that  would  give  him  insight  into  the 
ancient  world;  some  courses  that  would  introduce  him  to  Eng- 
lish and  other  modern  literatures;  some  work  in  philosophy  or 
psychology;  some  courses  in  history  and  economics;  and  surely 
some  work  that  would  give  him  the  point  of  view  of  modern 
science.  A  student  who  has  had  the  foundations  of  a  college 
course  solidly  laid  by  rigorous  and  for  the  most  part  prescribed 
courses;  who  pursues  at  least  one  subject  intensively,  and  who 
has  not  utterly  neglected  literature,  philosophy,  history,  and 
science  would  have  at  least  the  elements  of  a  liberal  education. 
It  is  a  pity,  too,  that  our  machinery  calls  for  courses  and  not 
for  subjects.  "I  don't  care  anything  about  French:  I  need 
another  course,"  is  a  remark  heard  on  more  than  one  campus. 
We  should  do  well  to  substitute  more  general  examinations  for 
course  credits.  The  undergraduate  today  is  all  too  liable  to 
think  of  his  collegiate  education  as  a  conglomeration  of  units 
or  hours  or  points,  not  as  a  unified  intellectual  accomplishment. 
We  ought  also  to  insist  more  on  quality  and  less  on  quantity. 
The  college  can  render  great  service  by  peaching  and  practicing 
the  virtue  of  honest  workmanship.  Many  a  student  gets  in  the 
business  world  the  training  in  accuracy  he  should  have  received 


22  Bowdoin  College 

in  college.  Our  boys  in  the  officers'  training  camps  write  that 
the  collegiate  demands  both  on  time  and  brains  are  relatively 
slight  compared  with  the  work  required  of  them  in  military  ancf 
naval  science.  Of  course  with  such  boys  there  is  the  immediate 
incentive  of  preparation  for  war;  conditions  would  'change 
much  if  peace  were  suddenly  to  be  declared.  And  it  is  because 
the  goal  is  necessarily  distant  and  general  that  in  our  colleges 
we  have  so  often  to  spur  a  student  and  so  seldom  to  restrain 
him.  For  all  that,  we  are  to  seek,  whenever  we  fail  to  insist 
on  thoroughness.  A  student's  idea  of  accuracy  is  often  like  that 
of  the  fisherman's  lad  in  the  well  known  Maine  story.  His 
mother  was  writing  to  an  absent  member  of  the  family.  "George 
is  going  out  mackerel  fishing  tomorrow  with  Captain  Crabtree." 
"Is  that  all  right,  George?"  "Well",  said  George,  "it  ain't  to- 
morrow and  it  ain't  mackerel  and  it  ain't  Captain  Crabtree; 
but  I  guess  it's  all  right".  In  trivial  matters  it  is  all  right: 
and  our  students  are  concerned,  and  rightly  concerned,  with 
so  many  things  besides  books  that  we  have  become  pretty 
generous.  But  if  we  recognize  that  one  of  our  national  weak- 
nesses is  a  failure  to  recognize  the  necessity  of  hard  work  and 
a  willingness  to  believe  one  can  "get  by"  through  doing  the  big 
thing  without  the  thorough  attention  to  details;  we  should  insist 
on  accurate  knowledge  of  whatever  is  learned  and  not  be  con- 
tent with  half  done  hasty  performance.  As  Mr.  Barrett 
Wendell  so  recently  and  so  wittily  remarked — the  German  has 
the  faculty  of  knowing  things  without  understanding  much 
about  them.  The  American  on  the  contrary  understands  things 
without  knowing  much  about  them.  There  is  a  happy  medium. 
And  back  of  all  we  undertake,  more  important  than  the 
necessarily  complicated  methods  and  machinery  of  modern 
college  administration,  must  be  the  impelling,  driving  spiritual 
force.  "In  college  we  deal  with  the  spirits  of  men,  not  with 
their  fortunes,"  wrote  once  a  distinguished  teacher.     Our  aim 


Inaugural  Exercises  23 

is  not  vocational :  our  goal  is  not  efficiency.  We  hold  that  the 
real  object  of  education  is  to  make  men  free  intellectually  and 
spiritually,  to  develop  the  resourceful  mind  in  a  strong  Christian 
character.  Education  concerns  itself  primarily  with  the  in- 
dividual. It  strives  to  make  him  not  only  a  more  useful,  but 
a  happier,  more  tolerant  man.  A  person  who  in  his  formative 
years  becomes  acquainted  even  somewhat  distantly  with  the 
best  in  literature  and  science  and  art,  who  has  had  some 
training  in  philosophical  and  religious  thought,  and  in  the 
historical  point  of  view  has  within  himself  resources  that  will 
grow  only  more  potent  and  more  delightful  with  age.  These 
are  all  truisms  but  they  need  constant  repetition.  I'he  things 
of  the  spirit  are  the  eternal  things:  they  live  on  and  endure 
when  war  and  lust  of  conquest  have  passed.  Think  how  many 
changes  of  government,  what  political  revolutions,  what  de- 
vastating wars  the  ancient  universities  of  Europe  have  wit- 
nessed. At  times  they  have  been  in  invaders'  hands:  often 
they  have  had  temporarily  to  suspend.  But  Learning,  the  hand- 
maid of  Freedom  and  Truth,  though  crushed  to  earth  will  al- 
ways rise  again.  This  College  after  the  sacrifices  of  the  Civil 
War  emerged  only  the  more  serene.  And  thus  we  doubt  not  it 
shall  be  in  the  future. 

Changes  in  administration  and  in  detail  there  will  of  course 
be,  some  of  them  temporary  such  as  are  already  contemplated 
to  suit  war  conditions,  others  more  lasting  to  adapt  our  course 
to  an  ever-changing  world.  But  we  shall  be  true  to  the  ancient 
traditions,  the  ancient  heritage  of  this  institution:  the  spirit  of 
the  College  will  live  on 

When  years  have  clothed  the  lines  in  moss 

That  tell  our  names  and  day 
and  we  shall  strive  to  be  true  to  those  principles  not  only  for 
ourselves,  but  for  our  beloved  country.    There  is  being  fought 
now  and  there  will  be  fought  many  years  after  the  war  ends 


24  Bowdoin  College 

the  conflict  between  materialism  and  idealism.  Through  the 
terrible  but  purifying  fires  of  war  we  are  readjusting  our  ideas 
on  the  real  values  of  life.  In  the  nineteenth  century  there  was 
antagonism  between  the  humanities  and  science,  until  science 
won  her  rightful  position  in  the  world  of  thought.  Today  all 
that  is  changed;  science  and  the  older  studies  are  allies  in  a 
common  cause.  In  reading  the  admirable  report  of  the  Eng- 
lish Committee  appointed  by  the  Prime  Minister  to  inquire  into 
the  position  of  Natural  Science  in  the  Educational  System  of 
Great  Britain  one  is  struck  by  this  sentence.  "While  science 
should  be  valued  as  the  bringer  of  prosperity  and  power  to  the 
individual  or  the  nation,  it  must  never  be  divorced  from  those 
literary  and  historical  studies  which  touch  most  naturally  the 
heart  and  the  hopes  of  mankind."  Science  is  fast  being 
humanized:  it  may  not  be  too  much  to  hope  that  the  humani- 
ties may  be  humanized  too.  So  science  and  letters  both  con- 
secrated and  vivified  may  train  the  soul  of  the  nation. 

These  are  some  of  the  hopes  and  fears  that  we  entertain 
for  the  College  as  we  start  to  carry  on  her  work  under  a  new 
administration,  nurtured  and  strengthened  by  the  influence  of 
that  great  presidency  that  closed  last  June.  Some  of  these  fears 
may  be  groundless;  many  of  these  hopes  will  not  be  fulfilled. 
But  with  the  aid  and  sympathy  of  all  friends  of  the  College 
we  trust  in  this  far  eastern  corner  of  our  country  to  keep  burn- 
ing on  the  shrine  of  scholarship  and  literature  the  lamp  that 
has  lighted  the  path  of  so  many  sons  of  Bowdoin  in  the  past. 
It  is  not  a  garish  light;  but  there  is  something  warm  and 
enheartening  in  its  flame.  It  has  made  happier  not  only  men 
who  are  enrolled  in  the  book  of  Fame  but  many  whose  duties 
carry  them  along  shaded  paths  and  quiet  streets.  In  these  dark 
days  it  burns  clearly  on.  "He  was  our  only  child",  wrote  to 
me  the  father  of  one  of  our  boys  killed  in  action  in  France, 
"and  while  our  loss  is  irreparable,  we  are  with  you  proud  of 


Inaugural  Exercises  25 

the  achievements  of  his  brief  life  and  glad  to  remember  that 
we  gave  him  an  education  the  last  of  which  was  the  wonderful 
inspiration  and  broadening  influences  received  at  Bowdoin 
which  shall  last  through  all  eternity".  That  is  one  illustration 
of  dealing  with  the  spirits  of  men,  not  with  their  fortunes.  And 
because  we  believe  that  in  acquainting  men  with  the  best  that 
has  been  said  and  thought  in  the  world  and  in  training  them  to 
carry  that  idealism  into  action  we  can  contribute  to  them  the 
most  happiness  and  to  the  nation  the  best  service;  because  we 
believe  that,  we  shall  continue  to  give  at  Bowdoin  College  a 
liberal  education. 


Marshal  for  the  Day 

Professor  William  Witherle  Lawrence,  Ph.D.,  Litt.D.,  of 
Columbia  University. 

Delegates  and  Guests  Attending  the  Inauguration 

Representing  the  State  of  Maine 

His  Excellency  Carl  Elias  Milliken,  LL.D.,  Governor  of  Maine, 
with  his  Staff. 

Members  of  the  Governor's  Council. 

Hon.  Leslie  Colby  Cornish,  LL.D.,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Su- 
preme Judicial  Court. 

Augustus  Orloff  Thomas,  Ph.D.,  State  Superintendent  of 
Public   Schools. 

Hon.  Harold  Marsh  Sewall,  LL.B.,  Chairman  of  the  Maine 
Committee  of  Public  Safety. 

Representing  Nezv  England  Educational  Institutions 

Professor  Edwin  Herbert  Hall,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

Professor  Byron  Satterlee  Hurlbut,  A.M.,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

Professor  Henry  Pratt  Fairchild,  Ph.D.,  Yale  University. 

Professor  Francis  Greenleaf  Allinson,  Ph.D.,  Brown  University. 

Business  Director  Homer  Eaton  Keyes,  A.M.,  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege. 

Acting  President  George  Henry  Perkins,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Uni- 
versity of  Vermont. 

Acting  President  Henry  Daniel  Wild,  A.M.,  Williams  College. 

President  Arthur  Jeremiah  Roberts,  A.M.,  Colby  College. 


Inaugural  Exercises  27 

President    David    Nelson    Beach,    D.D.,    Bangor    Theological 

Seminary. 
Dean  George  Daniel  Olds,  LL.D.,  Amherst  College. 
Dean  Frank  Walter  Nicolson,  A.M.,  Wesleyan  University. 
Dean  Ida  Josephine  Everett,  A.M.,  Wheaton  College. 
President  Hermon  Carey  Bumpus,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Tufts  College. 
Dean  Frank  George  Wren,  A.M.,  Tufts  College. 
Professor  William  Thompson  Sedgwick,  Ph.D.,  Massachusetts 

Institute  of  Technology. 
President   Robert   Judson   Aley,    Ph.D.,    LL.D.,   University   of 

Maine. 
President  George  Colby  Chase,  D;D.,  LL.D.,  Bates  College. 
Professor  Lyman  Granville  Jordan,  Ph.D.,  Bates  College. 
Professor  Fred  Austin  Knapp,  A.M.,  Bates  College. 
Professor  Fred  Elmer  Pomeroy,  A.M.,  Bates  College. 
President  Ralph  Dome  Hetzel,  LL.D.,  New  Hampshire  College 

of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts. 
Professor  Mabel  Elisabeth  Hodder,  Ph.D.,  Wellesley  College. 
Professor  Frank  Hamilton  Hankins,  Ph.D.,  Clark  University. 
President  Howard  Edwards,  LL.D.,  Rhode  Island  State  College. 


Other  Guests 

Henry  Pomeroy  Davison,  LL.D.,  Chairman  of  the  War  Council, 
The  American  Red  Cross. 

President  Frederick  Carlos  Ferry,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Hamilton 
College. 

Professor  Waterman  Thomas  Hewett,  Ph.D.,  Cornell  Uni- 
versity. 

Rt.  Rev.  Benjamin  Brewster,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Maine. 

Rev.  Ashley  Day  Leavitt,  D.D.,  Portland,  Maine. 

Donald  Baxter  MacMillan,  Sc.D.,  Freeport,  Maine. 


28  Bowdoin  College 

Comraenceraent  Speakers 

Henry  Pomeroy  Davison,  LL.D.,  for  the  American  Red  Cross. 

Hon.  Leslie  Colby  Cornish,  LL.D.,  for  the  State  of  Maine. 

President  George  Colby  Chase,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  for  the  other 
Maine  Colleges. 

Donald  Baxter  MacMillan,  Sc.D.,  for  the  Alumni. 

Dean  Frank  Walter  Nicolson,  A.M.,  for  the  other  New  England 
Colleges. 

President  Frederick  Carlos  Ferry,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  for  the  Col- 
leges outside  of  New  England. 

Rev.  Ashley  Day  Leavitt,  D.D.,  for  the  Church. 


Inaugural  Exercises  29 

Congratulatory  Letters 


THE  WHITE  HOUSE 
Washington 

22  May,  1918 
My  dear  Professor  Sills: 

I  am  sincerely  interested  to  learn  of  your  approaching 
inauguration  as  President  of  Bowdoin  College,  and  beg  that 
you  will  accept  my  most  sincere  congratulations. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  it  is  out  of  the  question  for  me  to 
consider  such  pleasures  as  you  invite  me  to.  It  is  only  too 
clear  that  I  cannot  attend  the  inauguration,  but  you  may  be 
sure  that  my  best  wishes  will  go  with  you  in  the  new  duties 
which  you  are  undertaking. 

Cordially  and  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)     WOODROW  WILSON. 

Professor  Kenneth  C.  M.  Sills, 
Bowdoin  College, 

Brunswick,  Maine. 


30  Bowdoin  College 


THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY, 
Washington. 

21   May,  1918. 
My  dear  Dean  Sills: 

I  thank  you  most  cordially  for  your  telegram  of  the  i6th 
inst.  inviting  me  to  be  present  at  your  inauguration  as  Presi- 
dent of  Bowdoin.  I  do  not  know  of  anything  that  would  give 
me  as  much  pleasure  as  to  accept,  and  nothing  but  the  stress 
of  official  duties  here  in  Washington  would  prevent  me  having 
the  pleasure. 

I  congratulate  Bowdoin  and  congratulate  you,  and  I  wish 
you  to  know  how  deeply  I  value  your  friendship. 

Wishing  you  continued  success  and  regreting  my  inability 
to  be  with  you,  believe  me  always. 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)     JOSEPHUS  DANIELS. 

Dean  Kenneth  C.  M.  Sills, 
Brunswick,  Maine. 


Inaugural  Exercises  3^ 


HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE 
President's  Office. 


May  28,  19 18. 
Dear  President  Sills: 

Let  me  congratulate  you  most  heartily  upon  being  the  Presi- 
dent of  Bowdoin  College.  It  is  a  great  opportunity,  and  ex- 
tremely interesting  work.  I  am  sorry  that  I  shall  not  be  able 
to  be  at  your  inauguration  on  June  20th,  as  that  is  the  ver}- 
day  of  our  Commencement  here. 

With  best  wishes,  I  am 


Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)     A.  LAWRENCE  LOWELL 


President  Kenneth  C.  M.  Sills, 
Bowdoin  College, 

Brunswick,  Maine. 


32  Bowdoin  College 


YALE  UNIVERSITY 

New  Haven,  Connecticut. 

President's  Office, 

Woodbridge  Hall,  105  Wall  Street. 


May  2y,  1918. 
My  dear  President  Sills: 

I  wish  with  all  my  heart  that  T  were  able  to  attend  your 
inauguration  on  Thursday,  June  twentieth.  Unfortunately  our 
own  Commencement  comes  on  Wednesday,  June  nineteenth.; 
and  the  exercises  last  until  so  late  an  hour  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  me  to  reach  Brunswick  in  time  for  the 
inauguration.  I  must  therefore  content  myself  with  sending 
you  most  cordial  good  wishes.  Apart  from  the  debt  our 
country  owes  to  Bowdoin,  we  here  at  Yale  are  under  special 
personal  indebtedness  in  many  ways;  and  I  feel  sure  that 
during  your  administration  the  same  delightful  relations  will 
continue  which  haA^e  been  maintained  under  your  predecessor. 

Very  sincerely, 

ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY. 
President  Kenneth  C.  M.  Sills, 
Bowdoin  College, 

Brunswick,  Maine, 


